--- title: UK MPs Debate High Heels and Sexist Workplace Dress Codes description: British lawmakers debated sexist workplace dress codes following a petition that received more than 150,000 signatures. canonical: https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-07T12:31:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:04.551Z og:title: UK Lawmakers Debate High Heels and Sexist Dress Codes og:description: "Shod in heels or flats, we are collectively putting our foot down" og:url: https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6990d118489c50e9/6988bd4586f68e72566e3be6/gettyimages-186678783.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Woman stood next to man, view of shoes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: UK Lawmakers Debate High Heels and Sexist Dress Codes twitter:description: "Shod in heels or flats, we are collectively putting our foot down" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6990d118489c50e9/6988bd4586f68e72566e3be6/gettyimages-186678783.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Issue of Women Being Forced to Wear High Heels at Work Reaches U.K. Parliament by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 7, 2017 12:31 PM UTC  Compassionate Eye Foundation—Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 7, 2017 12:31 PM UTC British lawmakers discussed [sexist workplace dress codes](http://motto.time.com/4503598/workplace-sexism-study-heels-makeup-women/) this week after more than 150,000 people signed a [petition](https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129823) calling on the U.K. government to make it illegal for companies to require women to wear [high heels](http://motto.time.com/4650468/nicola-thorp-britain-high-heels/) at work. The petition was created by Nicola Thorp, from London, after she was sent home for wearing flat shoes to work in December 2015\. Thorp, then a temp worker, was employed by Portico, a company with a dress code policy that at that time required women to wear heels of between 2 to 4 inches. She refused. “There needs to be a culture shift,” Thorp told Motto earlier this year. “Especially in the workplace. Asking a woman to dress in a certain way against her will is harassment. And when an employee is sexualized…it leads to bad practices.” > [](https://twitter.com/HoCpetitions/status/838660427974324224) Because Thorp’s petition received more than 150,000 signatures, it was eligible to be debated by Members of Parliament (MPs), [a discussion](http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/df6bf60a-ef73-42e9-88a2-73caddbcca11) that took place Monday afternoon. Helen Jones, an MP who chairs the Petitions Committee, introduced the debate, calling sexist workplace dress codes a form of “indirect discrimination.” The Labour Party lawmaker, who helped lead a [parliamentary investigation](https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpetitions/291/29102.htm) into dress codes, said she and her colleagues were shocked by what they found. “We found attitudes that belonged more \[to the\] — I was going to say 1950s, but probably the 1850s might be more accurate, than in the 21st century,” she told the MPs at Westminster Hall at the beginning of the debate. “We found that women, especially young women in vulnerable employment, were exploited at work.” Jones added: “Threatened with dismissal if they complained, they were forced to bear pain all day, or wear clothing that was totally unsuitable for the tasks they were asked to perform, or to dress in a way they felt sexualized their appearance or was demeaning. But they had to put up with this if they wanted a job. And for that reason, I am very grateful to the women who came forward to give evidence to us in public because I think it took a great deal of courage. Courage that I probably wouldn’t have had at their age.” The Parliamentary Petitions and Women and Equalities Committees have [called for a review of equality legislation](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/mar/06/mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes) in light of the high heel issue, the _Guardian_ reports. Junior equalities minister Caroline Dinenage said she has also written to trade groups in a range of sectors, urging them to review their dress codes. “We have had anti-discrimination laws in this area for more than 40 years, yet it is a safe bet that these sort of dress codes have existed under the radar, with female employees putting up with discrimination because that is the way things are,” she said, the [BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39178911) reports. “Shod in heels or flats, we are collectively putting our foot down and attitudes are changing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/"},"headline":"The Issue of Women Being Forced to Wear High Heels at Work Reaches U.K. Parliament","datePublished":"2017-03-07T12:31:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:04.551Z","description":"\"Shod in heels or flats, we are collectively putting our foot down\"","url":"https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/","keywords":["motto","Employment","Workplace","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6990d118489c50e9/6988bd4586f68e72566e3be6/gettyimages-186678783.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6990d118489c50e9/6988bd4586f68e72566e3be6/gettyimages-186678783.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman stood next to man, view of shoes","caption":"Woman stood next to man, view of shoes","creditText":"Compassionate Eye Foundation—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4693207/uk-mps-debate-sexist-workplace-dress-codes/","name":"The Issue of Women Being Forced to Wear High Heels at Work Reaches U.K. Parliament"}}]}] ```